Monday, December 31, 2018
Christmas Toy Decorations Supplemental
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Lazy Or Controlling?
Who wants to read a screenplay? Aside from an aspiring screenwriter, I can't imagine anyone who would do it. It makes me wonder why there is no novelization. Is that a thing that people don't do anymore? I've got my share of novelizations of movies that I love on my shelves:
Okay, I don't love all those movies. I wonder if I should keep those prequel books, now that millennials have come of age, people are trying to say the prequels are good. Maybe I could sell those off for a profit, and I might be able to forget about that time that I got swept up in the fervor. The Terry Brooks book is signed even. Oops, I'm getting off topic.
I also have plenty of Harry Potter on my shelves:
And I'll be adding each new edition as they come out.
Do they really think people would rather read a screenplay than some journeyman writer's novelization of that screenplay? Is it lazy? The screenplay is already written, so there's nothing they need to do to it before they can release it.
Or is it J.K. Rowling being super controlling of her property. She wrote the screenplays. Does she want to make sure no one else's name appears on the spine of a Harr...er...Wizarding World book? I can't imagine that it's greed. She's got money coming out her ears. She uses bundles of $100 bills...oops, I mean £100 notes to stoke up her fireplace. So, it seems unlikely that she's grubbing for money. In fact, I think Rish said that all the proceeds are going to charity. So, why not do something worth reading? Hmmm...
Monday, December 24, 2018
The Christmas Minefield, Part Three
And the huge bucket of fudge as well.
Argh! Can I make it to the end? Is this the end? Or will more show up tomorrow? Yeah, I've gotta be there for that too.
Eraser
Is it just me, or does it seem like someone just went in with the eraser tool on Photoshop, and removed just enough stuff from this package to keep them from getting sued?
I suppose it's always been that way, and I shouldn't even notice it, but for some reason I did. I think it might have been the font.
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Fant4stic
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevich) on
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevich) on
Glitter Bomb
I suggested it to my wife and kids, and they, of course, ignored me, and watched everything available that wasn't it. Since the suggestion was coming from me, they knew not to take it. It was probably another intermittent fasting video, right? So, I forced them to sit down and watch it.
They enjoyed it, as pretty much anyone who watches it does. So much so, that my daughter asked if he had other videos like it. I told her to go to his channel and see. Now they are binge watching all of his videos...and they're pretty good too. Probably worth checking out as well.
Christmas Toy Enthusiast
In it I talk about how an Amazon toy catalog made me nostalgic for those department store catalogs from the 1980s. Rish makes his longest appearance yet, as well.
I actually have one more Christmas one that I was going to post this month...I'm never going to get it done before Christmas however. It'll have to be a little later than that. But I'll definitely get it in before December is over.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Gamorrean Guard Highlights
View this post on InstagramHighlights from my first show.
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I think I'll try to embed most of my posts from it here on my blog as well, but you could also follow me there and see them if you do the Instagram thing.
The Christmas Minefield, Part Two
Two more pecan pies:
What'd I tell about the pecan pies last time? This is probably the 19th and 20th pecan pies we've had in the station this month.
Then there was this candy and chocolate covered pretzels:
And this cake:
Also, one of my coworkers gives a Christmas gift to almost everyone. She says it's a thank you for all the help you've given her throughout the year. I don't know if I deserved one, really, but I got one all the same. It was this giant bag of candy:
This bag is heavy. I figured I would set it aside, and use it to load up the kids' stockings on Christmas Eve. The worst part was that I opened the bag to share with someone I work with, and for the rest of the night, I kept smelling those peanut butter cups. It was the strongest when I was driving home. The scent filled my whole car with deliciousness. I wish I could be one of those lucky people whose metabolism still functions properly, although I get the feeling that the only reason there's works right is because they didn't spend their lives eating as poorly...and more importantly as frequently...as I did.
It's possible that I might be in the clear now. Most people are taking vacation next week. So, I might have a better time of it. At the very least, I'll have a weekend of relief.
Toy Enthusiast
I've got two videos out so far that you can check out, and I'm seconds away from posting my third.
So if this kind of stuff interests you at all, I'd love it if you gave it a look. Check it out, like, subscribe, hit the bell for notifications, and whatever else it is that YouTubers say.
Thursday, December 20, 2018
The Christmas Minefield, Part One
For fun, I started taking pictures of all the stuff I have to avoid. Here's day one.
Cookies:
Pecan pie:
There's always pecan pie. I guess pecans are a specialty of Texas, so we get pecan pies like...I don't know, Germans get schnitzel or something.
This is some kind of homemade peanut brittle or candy or something like that. I can't tell you any better, because I didn't try it:
So, that's just one day, and I think there was another gift basket at the other end of the newsroom that had a bunch of candy and cookies too, but I didn't go past it, so I didn't take any pictures. We'll see what they have for me tomorrow.
Pushers
Is it just me, or are they coming out and admitting that they've got you addicted, and they're encouraging you to keep at it?
I've been reading this trade paperback from Marvel Comics of the original appearances of Cloak & Dagger. I was pretty unfamiliar with these characters, but they always interested me. I discovered that one of the effects of Dagger's light powers is that she can cure junkies of their addiction. We need a real life Dagger to cure America of its carbohydrate addiction, because we're all riding on a train over a creaky old bridge that has collapsed just ahead. We're going to plunge into the canyon headlong soon. There's so many, many ways that it's going to destroy our entire society if we don't turn things around. Sigh...
Vegetarians
Why? I couldn't believe he said it, but it was because they were green...so they looked like vegetables.
Kids are funny.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
People Of Walmart
I know there's that website called People of Walmart where they post pictures of all the outlandish, startling, and even downright horrifying things that people do at Walmart, but I definitely do not lump these two into that category. No, these two are quite the opposite. I think they are completely awesome.
I don't know the story behind the outfits. I did walk by them and tell them that I liked the duds, and the Dad said, "Thanks. They're jammies." I said they looked comfortable, then went on to find what I was looking for. My guess is that the kid was wearing his dinosaur jammies, and didn't want to take them off for the trip to Walmart. Maybe he asked his dad to wear them too, maybe the dad volunteered so the little guy wouldn't feel weird wearing them at Walmart. Hell, I don't know, maybe the dad wanted to wear his jammies, and begged the son to join in so it would look like it was all his idea.
All I can say is that they were having fun, and they were doing something together as a family, and it warmed my heart this Christmas season. My heart grew two sizes and all that. Hear, hear for the people of Walmart!
Friday, December 7, 2018
TGMG 215: The Crimes of Biggenrish
(EDIT: This one was on the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine feed. Now that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).
Monday, December 3, 2018
Episode 204: Bunnies Of The Apocalypse by Gregg Chamberlain
You can find it on the feed, or go to this link to listen as well. Mr. Chamberlain would love it if you did...and so would I.
(EDIT: Now that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).
The King Of Christmas
Oh, crap! This post is supposed to be about the king of Christmas, and not people who ruin things for other people because of envy, and instead I went off on a rant. Let me get to the point.
So, they were setting up the lobby for the party, and they got out this chair that Santa sits on during the party. Only, this is not just a chair. This thing is a freaking throne. Check it out:
I don't know why, but the sight of this thing made me think of that picture of Notorious B.I.G. with his crown:
Me and Biggy don't really have that much in common. Just the one thing really. But I saw that throne, and thought of the picture, and felt compelled to try and pose like a badass on it. A Christmas badass. I'm the motherf***ing King of Christmas y'all!
Right, right. I know. I don't look like much of a badass at all. At least I tried.
The funny thing is that they have this throne in the station all year long. It's the same throne every year for the kids' party. I wonder if the big boss is ever tempted to pull it out and sit in it during meetings or something. Good thing I'm not a big boss, because I would totally do that.
Rest Assured
The spirit of Christmas lives on.
Aitch Two Oh
Seriously, hydrogen infused water?
Somebody explain to me how this can possibly be a thing? Does the H in H2O not mean anything? How did they infuse the water with hydrogen? If they put extra hydrogen in water, doesn't it stop being water? What is H3O? I know that CO2 changes substantially when it becomes simply CO.
Anyway, humans don't need crap like this. We evolved to eat and drink certain stuff, and snake oil was not one of them. There just wasn't enough snakes around to be a large part of our diet.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Hanging With The Cool Kids
The other day, I got invited to hang with the cool kids and talk Star Wars Bounty Hunters on the Delusions of Grandeur Podcast.
You can check it out over at Marshal Latham's Journey Into site.
Is it a coincidence that Delusions of Grandeur is abbreviated as DoG, and they're talking about Bounty Hunters? I think not.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
TGMG 214: Stan, The Man
(EDIT: This one was on the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine feed. Now
that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the
Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).
Friday, November 23, 2018
Black Friday
This year, however, I used Black Friday for its even more traditional use. It wasn't Black Friday, but instead The Day After Thanksgiving, which is the traditional day that you decorate your home for the holiday season, just like New Year's Day is the traditional day you pull all that stuff back down. Last year, I posted about going shopping on Boxing Day...which with a name like that really ought to be the day that violence, beatings, shootings, and Mortal Kombat erupt, right?...and finding some good decorations on for half-off. I had to stuff them in a box and leave them for a year, but now I can finally bring them out and see how they look.
The tree that I bought in an effort to soothe some of that burning nostalgia inside me finally got to see the light of day. Here is how it turned out:
What do you think? Does it look anything like this one:
I don't know how well it matches, but I still love it. Now I just need some more of my mom's homemade decorations to fill out the rest of the room...but I don't think I'm going to do that. I was thinking more along the lines of a Wampa cave for Christmas...What do you think?
I did a bunch of stuff like that. I think I'm going to do a show about the whole process. Watch this space!
I spent the day decorating, and it looked like this when I was done:
Nice and cheery. A perfect place to spend some time with a mug of cocoa and significant other to snuggle with. I probably ought to skip the cocoa, though, and my significant other doesn't want to support my toy habit unless my toy habit can support itself somehow. So, I guess that's not going to happen. Ah, well. If only I liked my cat, because she is always curled up on top the overstuffed chair in my den...leaving great wads of cat hair all over it...
Friday, November 9, 2018
The Thing In The Woods
Graniville is a town filled with urban legends and conspiracy theories. Some old, some new. Benny Paulsen has made it his duty to uncover them one by one.
You can listen to the show at this link. Looks like you can also find it on YouTube, so you can listen there as well.
Check it out...if you dare!
Friday, November 2, 2018
Hit By A Bus
I let off the gas; I was pretty rattled. I kind of coasted along for a moment as I approached the intersection that I was headed for. The bus driver must have been on some kind of a tight schedule, because he didn't slow much at all. Only just enough to take a left turn just as the light was turning yellow. He went on through the intersection, and kept on driving, disappearing from my sight, because I didn't make the light before it turned red. I was too busy, unlike that bus driver, slowing down and acting as though I'd just been in a traffic accident.
I stopped at the light, and several of the people in the cars around me who had just witnessed the accident were catching my eye, then shaking their heads and throwing up their hands as if to say, "What the heck was that bus driver doing?"
When the light turned green, I took a left, and drove on down the road to see if the bus driver had actually not meant to abandon the scene, but instead had pulled over down the street and was waiting for me. It was not to be. He was gone, gone, gone.
So, I went to work, pulled into the parking lot, and surveyed the damage. My side mirror seemed to have taken all of the damage of the encounter. When the bus hit it, it moved on the joint that side mirrors have, and flattened against the car. I had to pop it back into position.
The plastic of the reflector was cracked, and a portion of it had fallen off. The plastic housing of the mirror had split apart a little, but it was holding together.
And that seemed to be the whole extent of the damage. I couldn't see anything else in any other areas.
Either my jerking the steering wheel to the left or possibly the bus driver's move back to the right had saved my car from sustaining any real damage. It all happened so fast that I couldn't really say exactly what happened. I want to say that when I jerked my car to the left, it jumped up the curb onto the sidewalk for a minute, but now that I think back on it, I don't think it did. That probably would have resulted in some big damage to the car, because they have steep, straight curbs all along the sides of the roads around here. They always say that eyewitness testimony is unreliable, and in this case, I definitely believe it. Because my eyewitness testimony is definitely garbage.
But, even though it was a hit and run, everything turned out okay. The damage is minimal, something I'm not even going to bother trying to fix. I've done worse damage to my own side mirror in the past when pulling out of my parking spot (Rish Outfield can attest to it, he was in the passenger seat), and I didn't fix that either. So, I'm definitely not fixing this. And nobody got hurt. All's well that ends well.
I did see this scratch on the car when I was examining it for damage, but for all I know, it was already there. I wouldn't be surprised if it came from some other event--a door ding in a parking lot or something like that.
Who can say they got hit by a bus and fared so well?